You called your war what? Forget Desert Storm, we bring you Operation Inherent Resolve

Tim Elliott

If you thought naming your baby was hard, try naming a war. After months of hand-wringing and very un-soldierly flip-flopping, the Pentagon has finally decided on a name for its mission against Islamic State fighters: Operation Inherent Resolve.

According to US Central Command, the name is "intended to reflect the unwavering resolve and deep commitment of the US and partner nations … to eliminate the terrorist group ISIL and the threat they pose".

But according to many, the name itself is a threat to common sense. "Resolve can be a lot of things but I'm not sure I get how it can be 'inherent'," one person tweeted. "Wait, if the operation's resolve is inherent, why does it need to be in the title?" tweeted another. Until recently, even the US military seemed to think it was lame: "It is just kind of bleh," one officer told the Wall Street Journal in early October, when it was being considered as a working title.

"The Americans have become increasingly politicised with the names they use for their missions," says the Australia Defence Association's Neil James. "Since the Twin Towers came down, they wanted to demonstrate a point, that they weren't fighting Islam, only the extremists. Which is one of the reasons why the word crusade is never used."

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The convention of naming military operations began during WW1, Mr James says. Ever since the 1950s, the traditionamongst NATO nations has been to give one-word names to operations and two-word names to exercises. Thus the invasion of Normandy in 1944 was called "Operation Overlord", while the joint US-Australia training exercises is "Exercise Talisman Sabre".

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The use of more evocative, aspirational names – names that could sway public opinion – is thought to have started in 1989, with the US invasion of Panama, or Operation Just Cause (which the Pentagon had initially called Operation Blue Spoon).

The Australian military doesn't go in for such frippery, preferring instead to use a computer program, run out of the Joint Operational Command, near the town of Bungendore, to randomly generate names. This is how we have arrived at Operation Okra, which is, if you didn't already know, the name for our contribution to the fight against ISIL. (A popular health food, okra, known also as "ladies fingers", is a long, green vegetable, which is high in fibre, vitamin C and anti-oxidants.)

"The computer program throws up code words," says Mr James. "But it's important to check that the name doesn't betray the nature of the operation, because you can't go and tell the enemy what the operation is about."

The Herald respectfully suggests that the Australian Defence Force farms out the process to the public, crowdsourcing naming rights to the people who will ultimately pay for the war: us.